We left the story off with a raged out Namor headed for vengeance in Wakanda, the Avengers were hiding out in the city hoping to figure out a solution to prepare Hope to help battle the Phoenix Five and the Phoenix Force itself. Unfortunately where things go in issue 8, well it’ll raise the urgency and also send the Avengers running for cover in the process, Namor isn’t the coolest head in the Phoenix Five and we get a dose of that in this issue.

Given the constant run-in events with Scarlet Witch it was a given there would be a breaking point for tolerance on why they didn’t try to take her out with a greater strike. Namor with his temper issues was the first to reach that fallout point and after getting a tip he waged full-scale war with some of his army from Atlantis on Wakanda against the Avengers in a pure rage for their defiance to this new order in the world. The act itself is huge but the battle is even larger, leaving the Avengers beaten and doubtful and making huge power balance shifts for the Phoenix Five.

Major changes do hit this issue, we see a Phoenix avatar step back and we see something long coming for Red Hulk as well, as I’ve stressed before I honestly felt he was completely boosted above reason in power and this brings the story back down to earth a bit.

With this arc drawing to a close soon one has to wonder what else they’ll pull out of the box for this series, Hope is clearly training to tackle the Phoenix Force, there are new developments about the power distribution among those chosen and we see a new factor from the mutants come into play. To top it all off we haven’t even seen all the side story elements play out yet either. Bendis and crew better have some really good twists up their sleeve to keep this whole thing running until the final act.

Fringe is alive and well for one more season from Fox, the show battled huge odds closing out the fourth season but was able to finish strong. The current show order is 13 episodes for this 5th and final season, the panel was presented with a sea of white lily flowers by fan groups to mourn the loss of the show and the story we had grown so attached to. Fox also presented attendees with Observer hats given the focus of the story in season 5.

The focus of the panel was a bit of a celebration of the show and how far the team has come, how many twists and turns came forward and how many bullets the characters of the show were able to dodge or rebound from. The moderator focused on memories and touching moments letting everyone chime in on their most special times on the show, odd enough, they all revolved around Astrid’s focus episode where it felt as the most touching of all.

John Noble and Joshua Jackson weren’t able to really deliver their personal moments like this so instead they delved into other bodily functions such as the urge to heave at their grossest moments on the show, anything from non-decomposed stage bodies to eyes out of the socket and reaching around the cavities of these props. Noting that somehow the more decomposed states were easier to work with without losing their lunch.

We did reach some season 5 discussion though, a small sizzle reel was shown to the audience highlighting footage from the future world episode mixed with new scenes as well. The Fringe team is back and this time they’re going to apply themselves to be the anomaly against the Observer controlled world, nothing is off the table with new and old members united. Peter is clear when he steps up to help lead and tells everyone it’s time to create some Fringe events of their own this time, it’ll take supernatural events and all of their brain power to take on this group.

The focus of Season 5 will be future day as seen in the Season 4 episode teaser highlighting problems coming in the future, on top of that we’ll see Peter and Olivia teamed up with their daughter who packs secrets of her own. The tension his high and the team promises to give it everything possible in every single episode coming up so expect possibly the best season yet of Fringe. For those worried, they do promise we’ll see closure to this current arc but possibly not all of Fringe for reasons they address below.

During the panel the afterlife of Fringe is brought into question, hopes of a potential movie (no word on straight to disc or film) and the expansion of the universe in other mediums such as graphic novels or comics which we’ve seen already (Into the Fringe) were brought into play for ways the story can always continue. They’ve certainly left a large leap in time to fill in with a 20 year gap between the birth of Peter and Olivia’s daughter and Season 5 so all of that is in the air right now. The main focus for the moment will be on production and making sure this current arc delivers for fans without leaving everyone in the dark at the end.

Fringe Season 5 will air Fridays on Fox starting September 28th, 2012 for the final 13 episode run.

The good Doctor is just a few months away from returning to us on the television again, to hold everyone over though, the team made a stop at San Diego Comic-Con again this year to share tidbits on the new season including details around the trouble headed toward the Ponds and a little bit on the new companion headed to the show.

Attempted to shoot this on video for better record keeping, it didn’t come out amazingly well due to the lack of a tripod but the audio is there to help guide things along. Unfortunately the BBC had forbidden recording of the video sections shown between discussion.